Thursday, October 20, 2005

Chili Cage Match: The Battle of the Joes

I’ve wanted to try the (relatively) new Joe’s Chili Bowl in the Town and Country Shopping Center for some time and finally did today. Admit it; it’s a good day for Chili.

Sitting down at the counter (their only tables are outside, it’s in the old Fannie May candy store) I knew I was going to wind up comparing it to Joe Rogers’.

By they way, did you know the Joe Rogers restaurant’s full name is Joe Rogers’ Original Recipe Chili Parlor? I didn’t until I looked it up in the phone book for spelling purposes. Maybe I’m just not reading the signs in the store.

Anyway, we ate at the counter. I had the chili and tamale while Mrs. TEH had a chilidog and a bowl. They have three levels of hotness: mild, medium and hot. We both chose medium figuring we could calibrate our choice for next time if it was too mild or too hot. As it turned out, I thought the medium was a bit mild so I may go for hot in the future.

The chili was good and while I would have to say Joe Rogers’ is slightly better but not by much. It seemed to me Joe’s chili was a bit meatier and had less grease (which I often have to spoon off a bit from JR’s chili). For what it is worth, Joe’s and JR’s tie in tamale taste but it seemed like Joe’s was larger. Or maybe it’s just tamale envy.

The one item that I think Joe’s has JR’s beat is the chili dog. Mrs. TEH let me try only a bite of the dog she ordered so I may not have had enough to judge. However, the Mrs. is of the opinion that Joe’s does indeed have the superior chili dog.

So I don’t know, I guess if the stores were right next to each other I probably would still head into JR’s (unless I wanted a chili dog) but if it looked even a bit more crowded I wouldn’t hesitate to belly-up to Joe’s counter.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Medium being too mild and hot being to hot, the half medium and half hot combo works well for me. One of my first jobs was at 12th & South Grand across from the Den - home of the fire brand. Even at 16, I was a connoisseur.